'Game of Thrones' actress confirms big book twist won't be in the show

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers from the Game of Thrones season four finale and the third book in the series. Read at your own risk.

Not everybody was happy when Game of Thrones aired its epic season four finale. Fans of George R.R. Martin’s books immediately cried out in rage when the credits rolled and Lady Stoneheart — the zombified and vengeful resurrection of Catelyn Stark — was nowhere to be found. Even though the episode’s director indicated that Stoneheart might not happen at all, fans still had some hope. But that hope has just been dashed.

Michelle Fairley, who played Catelyn in seasons one-three, told Entertainment Weekly that she isn’t coming back to the show.

Yeah, the character’s dead. She’s dead…You respect the writers’ decision. I knew the arc, and that was it. They can’t stick to the books 100 percent. It’s impossible — they only have 10 hours per season. They have got to keep it dramatic and exciting, and extraneous stuff along the way gets lost in order to maintain the quality of brilliant show.

The lack of Lady Stoneheart obviously isn’t the first change the adaptation has made, but it might be the biggest. Fans may begin to wonder about how much the character plays in the endgame of the books, given that the Thrones showrunners know where Martin is headed.

But for now we’re just incredibly disappointed that we wont’ get to see Fairley all zombified and gross, calling for death to the Freys. Because that’s the kind of thing that could be cooler onscreen than it was on the page. And it could have looked something like this: